Conferences

National Dormouse Conference 2016

This year’s conference was held in Reading on Friday 9th and Saturday 10th September 2016.

The conference featured a number of speakers across the two days, covering a wide range of topics.

FRIDAY

The day will be chaired by Tony Mitchell Jones, formerly mammal specialist at Natural England for 32 years. During this time he led conservation projects on a wide range of threatened mammals, many in partnership with PTES, and contributed to a range of conservation guidance, such as the Bat Worker’s Manual and the Dormouse Conservation Handbook. Tony joined PTES as a Trustee in 2011.

Goedele Verbeylen is a long term dormouse researcher and regular contributor to the National Dormouse forum. By using a range of trapping methods she thoroughly monitors a local dormouse population in Belgium and has an excellent insight into dormice behaviour and ecology. She will give an update on her ongoing project.

Simone Bullion works for the Suffolk Wildlife Trust and has extensive experience working with dormice. She has led a long term project to track down Suffolk’s dormice and will talk on her experiences and findings from the project on use and placement of nest tubes to survey for dormice.

Andy Bucklitch is a Tree and Landscape Officer in Worcestershire. He will discuss the validity of the nest tube survey methodology utilising more recent data.

Catherine Wyatt works for the Bat Conservation Trust and is the Planning Project Officer for The Partnership for Biodiversity in Planning (PBP). This is a partnership of 19 organisations representing the planning and conservation sectors, who are working together to simplify, streamline and improve the consideration of biodiversity in the planning process. She will talk about the aims of the project and progress to date.

Tristan Norton is a Senior Ecologist at Hampshire County Council. He previously worked as an ecological consultant so will be able to give a useful insight of what county councils need from consultants.

Ian White is the Dormouse Officer for PTES will give a brief talk on the current status on arboreal bridges including results from a test structure erected on the IoW.

Björn Schulz who will visit us from Germany, has worked on the practical reconnection of habitats between countries and has studied dormice in roadside habitats.

NE and NRW Ecological consultants have the opportunity to ask questions in advance of the conference and the mammal specialists from Natural England and Natural Resources Wales will respond to as many as possible in one of the presentations.

SATURDAY

Dr Pat Morris MBE will be chairing the day’s session on Saturday. Pat will be well known to may NDMP volunteers. He, along with Paul Bright, undertook much of early research the work on Dormice in the 1980’s and has written extensively on the species.

Sven Buchner who has produced a number of papers on Hazel dormice based on his research in Germany and is a co-author of the monograph on Hazel Dormice published in 2013. He will give an overview of the state of dormouse populations and conservation measures in mainland Europe.

Ben Ditchburn is the Head of the National Forest Inventory and he will talk about the woodland survey and its findings. In the future we aim to use the NDMP and data from the NFI to model where dormice should, or could, be.

Roger Trout has undertaken dormouse research for the Forestry Commission and, among other things, still studies dormice in the Wyre Forest; he also has extensive experience of PIT tagging dormice in the field. He will discuss the extent and results of his work in the Wyre monitoring a population of marked dormice.

Frasier Coombe is a PhD student studying dormouse genetics at Manchester. He will discuss his project and findings.

Cecily Goodwin is a PhD student studying dormice and forestry at Exeter University. She will discuss her project and findings.

Ian White is the Dormouse Officer for PTES and, as part of his role, manages the Dormouse Reintroduction Programme. There have been some recent strategy changes and these will be introduced along with the ongoing outcomes of the programme.

Ben Kite is a Principal Ecological Consultant at EPR. He will discuss current dormouse distribution in some counties in relation to historic land maps.

Past PTES conferences

The Day of the Hedgehog 2015 was the first UK summit on hedgehogs in a decade, with leading hedgehog experts discussing the pressures facing Britain’s favourite wild animal in the 21st century. The Day of the Hedgehog was organised by People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) and the British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS).

Dormouse Monitoring 2013 was a one-day conference about monitoring the elusive hazel dormouse that was held on Saturday 9th November 2013 at the University of Reading.

The day was for monitors and volunteers at National Dormouse Monitoring Programme (NDMP) sites whether new to dormouse monitoring or long committed. The aim was to give help and share ideas for those who might like to establish a local or county dormouse group and to help volunteers at all sites with the promotion of practical woodland management.